If you are so over Kik, the free, anonymous message and chat app favored by teens and fans of private communications, which boasts 300 million users worldwide, there are only a few short steps you need to take to bid the service a final farewell.
Kik works well as a messenger app to communicate with your friends and family or make new friends online, and it offers all kinds of fun chat and bot features that appeal to teens, but Kik also has some downsides. Because Kik accounts are not associated with verifiable phone numbers, it is easy for impostors to create fake accounts. The company’s reputation precedes it regarding criminal activity on the platform, which may make some people uncomfortable even after an initial positive experience. Eventually, many people may conclude that chat alternatives with better security — like WhatsApp for example — with its end-to-end encryption and links to real phone numbers, are more advantageous and safer to use. And others may tire of recreational chatting all together.
Temporary and permanent deactivation
There is a difference between deactivating an account and deleting it — which Kik refers to as temporary deactivation versus permanent deactivation. Temporary deactivation means that you will temporarily stop receiving Kik messages and emails, your user name will not be searchable, and your name will get deleted from your contacts’ lists. But you can reactivate your account if you wish by signing back in. To deactivate or permanently delete your account, go to Kik’s website either on your phone or your computer. You can access the proper web page on your phone by using the app’s Help section and typing in “Delete Account” to the search box.
To temporarily deactivate your Kik account click this link to get an email sent to you.
Permanent deactivation means deleting a Kik account forever. Once deleted, it cannot be restored. You will not receive messages or get emails from Kik ever again. No one will be able to search for you on the platform and your user name and profile will be forever expunged from your friends’ contact lists. Once you permanently deactivate or delete your account, you’ll no longer be able to log back in or access contact information or message history. If you ever want to use the service in the future, you’ll have to sign up again with a different email address.
To permanently deactivate your Kik account, click this link to get an email sent to you.
Kik makes it easy to quit
- Make sure you know the email address you used to sign up for the service.
- Enter the correct information on Kik’s permanent deactivation website.
- Kik will send you an email with a link to permanently deactivate your account.
- If you or someone you know has searched for or sent messages to your account, your profile will be cached on their device, so it may take a few days to disappear off their device.
- Anyone else searching for your user name won’t find you.
- Remove or uninstall the app from your phone, just as you would any other app.
Parents can deactivate a teen’s account
Deactivating a teen’s account means it will no longer be searchable within Kik, and the account will be deleted from the Kik contacts lists of all the teen’s chat companions. Parents need to know their child’s user name and the email address they used to register for the account. Here is how to find a teen’s user name.
- A teen’s user name is available from their smartphone by launching Kik, which opens the app to the main chats list.
- Tap the icon at the top of the screen to open the settings, where you can see both the teen’s username and bold-faced display name.
- If you chat with your teen from your own device, it’s easy to see their username from the chat.
Kik user names do not have spaces, and can mix upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. If the teen has reset their Kik account, parents may be able to find their username on the login screen. Kik recommends parents use their teen’s device to find out information about their Kik communications and should not expect to read the teen’s chats from their own device — basically a third-party device. That’s because Kik’s privacy features will automatically clear their chat history. Kik does not see or store chats between users.
Parents can ask Kik to deactivate their teen’s account for them. To do that, they must submit a deactivation inquiry to Kik via email at [email protected] with Parent Inquiry in the subject line. The request must include the teen’s Kik username and age.
There are many reasons why you may decide to quit Kik, and the company has made it easy to disengage for anyone who chooses to do so. Kik also gives parents the resources to shut down their teen’s Kik connection, if they feel it’s appropriate.
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